NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580

NVIDIA launched its first Fermi-based GPU earlier this year in the form of the GeForce GTX 480, and it was met with mixed reception. Until now, it’s been the fastest single-GPU offering on the market, but certain downsides kept it from being the first-choice of many. Does NVIDIA’s first proper follow-up fix all that was wrong?

Mafia II

For fans of the original Mafia game, having to wait an incredible eight years for a sequel must’ve been tough. But as we found out in our review, the wait might be forgotten as the game is quite good. It doesn’t feature near as much depth as say, Grand Theft Auto IV, but it does a masterful job of bringing you back to the 1940’s and letting you experience the Mafia lifestyle.

Manual Run-through: Because this game doesn’t allow us to save a game in the middle of a level, we chose to use chapter 7, “In Loving Memory…”, to do our runthrough. That chapter begins us on a street corner with many people around, and from there, we run to our garage, get in our car, and speed out to the street. Our path ultimately leads us to the park, and takes close to two minutes to accomplish.

NVIDIA’s GTX 580 struts its stuff here, only being surpassed by AMD’s powerful dual-GPU offerings. The gains compared to the GTX 480 are not quite as high as I’d expect, but are still notable.

Graphics Card

Best Playable

Min FPS

Avg. FPS

AMD HD 5970 2GB (Sapphire)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX High, 2xAA

28

55.292

NVIDIA GTX 580 1536MB (Reference)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX High, 2xAA

26

47.695

AMD HD 6870 1GB (CrossFireX)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX High, 0xAA

28

82.029

AMD HD 6850 1GB (CrossFireX)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX High, 0xAA

28

69.177

NVIDIA GTX 480 1536MB (Reference)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX High, 0xAA

23

61.922

AMD HD 5870 1GB (Sapphire)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX Medium, 0xAA

39

60.947

AMD HD 6870 1GB (Reference)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX Medium, 0xAA

33

54.626

NVIDIA GTX 470 1280MB (EVGA)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX Medium, 0xAA

30

50.955

AMD HD 5850 1GB (ASUS)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX Medium, 0xAA

27

38.468

NVIDIA GTS 450 1GB (SLI)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX Off, 0xAA

35

49.230

AMD HD 6850 1GB (Reference)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX Off, 0xAA

34

44.377

AMD HD 5830 1GB (Reference)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX Off, 0xAA

33

39.252

NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB (EVGA)

2560×1600 – Max Detail, PhysX Off, 0xAA

27

38.625

AMD HD 5770 1GB (Reference)

2560×1600 – Medium Shadows, Medium Geometry, SSAO Off, 0xAA

30

44.030

NVIDIA GTS 450 1GB (ASUS)

1920×1080 – Max Detail, PhysX Off, 0xAA

38

46.118

AMD HD 5750 1GB (Sapphire)

1920×1080 – Medium Detail, PhysX Off, 0xAA

32

47.660

The GTX 580 can handle Mafia II at top-end settings, even with anti-aliasing high, so that becomes our best playable. Surprisingly, despite having no PhysX acceleration, the HD 5970 still manages to surpass the performance of NVIDIA’s latest card.